The Second Edition of the Women In Development Summit by Olamide Akinsola

The second edition of the Women in Development summit hosted by Ideation Hub Africa held in Lagos on Thursday, March 28 at the LCCI conference and event centre in Victoria Island, Lagos. The event commenced by 9:00am and was opened by Mr Oyindamola Johnson who served as the compere.

Attendees were at this point encouraged to meet one another and mingle before the activities started fully.

The Executive Director of Ideation Hub Africa, Mrs Debola Deji-Kurunmi came up to give the opening address, welcoming members of the audience and encouraging the attendees to be expectant because the event was set to be truly impactful.

After this, the citation for the first speaker was given. The first speaker was Mrs Hansatu Adegbite, the executive director of WIMBIZ and she delivered the key note speech. She spoke extensively on strategic alliances and activating partnerships between businesses and non-profits in addition to leveraging with organizations with already existing infrastructure.

Afterwards MrsAdekanla Adegoke who is the head of Oando foundation came up for the first masterclass. She gave us a brief insight into the history of the foundation and how her journey prepared her for her duties at the foundation. She was always willing to go to the physical locations that required her attention. This attribute of has led to a realization that aspiring change makers need to think global and act local. She also spoke about the need for governance structures to be taken seriously in non-profits.

Then the first panel session came up. The panelists were Mrs Adekanla Adegoke, Hansatu Adegbite and Debola Deji-Kurumi.

An in depth wealth of experience was shared during the Panel session. The speakers shared the critical elements to consider in selecting a partner of choice, most notably thematic alignment and existing methodology, the importance of staying true to oneself and the means of navigating the collaboration conundrum.  Above all else they shared the importance of not giving up because whether you are told a yes or a no, you will have a story to tell.

Then the spoken word artiste, Atilola Moronfolu, came up for her presentation. Her piece was centered on how women are groomed for marriage and expected to limit their life achievements to the home.
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The attendees were then treated to a light breakfast of cupcakes and drinks. Following this, the second master class commenced. The lecture was given by Mary Olushoga, the founder of African Women Power Network. She started her session with a slide show on the various stages of entrepreneurial growth and shed light on the fact that a vast majority of African female entrepreneurs were yet to grow past the stage of surviving entrepreneurs to become innovative entrepreneurs. She shared some of the factors responsible for this which include financial illiteracy and limited access to funds. Following this she recommended acquainting women with investments practices and building platforms to connect women and prospective investors as solutions to improving financial literacy. She rounded off her session by sharing success stories of African women who have successfully secured investments required to grow their initiatives.

We then commenced the third master class lecture which was taken by Ayo Mairo Ese, who spoke on New Media Platforms. She spoke on the need to connect with old media users through new media, the importance of new media representation for organizations and the importance of being intentional about the image you present.

Following this we moved into the mentorship round table session. The mentorship roundtable featured Ngozi Adebiyi - CEO of OutsideIn HR, Bunmi George - CEO Of Shredder Gang, OloriBoye Ajayi - Founder of Katie WANG Company, Toyin Onigbanjo - Founder of August Secrets and the moderator, DebolaDeji- Kurumi. The mentors spoke on a number of things. Some of them include the importance of humility, the need to think global, the importance of being brand conscious, the pain of growth, the place of courage and other timeless nuggets.

Guests were then served lunch during the mentorship round table session as the speakers seemed to have boundless insights to share.

We then proceeded to have the last activity for the day which was the change maker challenge where the attendees were split into five teams and given a task to paint a worst-case scenario regarding an assigned subject matter and proffer a roadmap to people-oriented solutions.

The winners of the challenge were given certificates to acknowledge their victory and would be treated to a dinner where they would have the opportunity to network with various industry giants.

The event was then brought to a close as attendees were encouraged to make use of all they had learned and to also look forward to future editions of the summit.

The 2019 Women In Development Summit was truly an insightful, thought-provoking and eye-opening conference.